Genetic Modulation of Neurocognitive Development in Cancer Patients throughout the Lifespan: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - The rise in cancer survival rates has raised concerns about the long-term adverse effects of cancer treatment, including neurocognitive impairment. Neurocognitive deficits...     

Die Wiederherstellung der Zeit in der ambulanten Psychotherapie mit Psychosekranken

In psychoanalytic psychotherapy with psychotic patients, a disturbance in time experience quite frequently turns out to be central to the psychotic experience as a whole. These patients experience disruptions in the flow of time that lead to a loss of temporal continuity. This loss of temporal structures causes damage in thinking functions: Relations like causality, finality and others which imply a temporal dimension, cannot be established any more. Parts of treatment histories serve to demonstrate the reconstruction of temporal continuity by the patient in psychotherapy. Object-relation-theory and Piaget’s experimental psychology provide the frame of reference for the understandig of the mental processes involved. At the beginning of the psychotherapy the patient experiences being together with the therapist and being separated from him as two discrete conditions of existing which have no links. The periodical reappearance of being together in combination with the awareness of the therapist’s continuous ongoing care encourages the patient to remember and to envisage the meetings with the therapist. The reliability of the alternation seems to stimulate a specific mental activity which creates connections allowing for transitions between the different conditions — in the sense of Winnicott’s transitional phenomena. Transitional phenomena which sometimes are quite concrete things bridge the gap between presence and future. Narrating serves as a link to the past. Through these creative ego-activities temporal continuity is regained providing the basis for strucured thinking and — very important — for the perception of one’s own personality and its continuity over time, thus generating a sense of identity. This process of reconstructing time is interesting in itself, because it sheds light on the psychodynamics of the restitutional processes after a psychotic illness. Moreover, it allows for hypotheses about the development of the inner time dimension in early childhood.     

Forming and updating vaccination beliefs: does the continued effect of misinformation depend on what we think we know?

Cognitive Processing - People may cling to false facts even in the face of updated and correct information. The present study confronted misconceptions about the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine...     

The irrelevant sound effect in short-term memory: Is there developmental change?

With two experiments, effects of irrelevant speech and classroom noise on serial recall of common nouns presented pictorially were investigated in children and adults. Experiment 1 used fixed list lengths for children (first graders) and adults. Experiment 2 used list lengths adjusted to participants' (second–third graders, adults) individual spans. In both experiments, children and adults were equally impaired by irrelevant speech. This contrasts with a related study (differences in methodology) by Elliott (2002), who reported severe increase in the detrimental impact of irrelevant speech with decreasing age. In both experiments, classroom noise had no effect in overall analyses. For Experiment 1, however, separate group analyses revealed impairment in children. Results suggest that effects of irrelevant sounds on serial recall stem from two separate mechanisms: Specific interference due to the sounds' automatic access to short-term memory, and/or attention capture. Only for the latter there is developmental change.     

Work-Related Impression Formation: Reviewing Parenthood Penalties and Investigating a “Fatherhood Penalty” for Single Fathers

Abstract

We review the evidence that mothers, compared to childless women or fathers, are discriminated at work (“motherhood penalty”) and that fathers may receive “caregiver penalties.” We conclude that (implicitly or explicitly) expected family roles appear to determine parenthood penalties. On this basis, we examined penalties for fathers who are only assumed to be primary caregivers. We found “fatherhood penalties” for single fathers compared to married fathers (Experiment 1, N?=?343) and compared to singles and single mothers (Experiment 2, N?=?142 professionals). We discuss the mixed evidence on work-related perceptions of parents.